au: byron bay

When I found out that we were going to stay at a Caravan Park in Byron Bay – horrified would not be a strong enough word to describe how I felt. I was thinking it would be a dirty and gross trailer park but when we got to our accommodation, I was pleasantly surprised. My 2 “lads” and I had a mini cabin all to ourselves that came equipped with separate bedrooms and everything. This was going to be the first time since we started off in Alice Springs that we all weren’t going to be sleeping in the same room. Can you sense a little bit of separation anxiety on my part?

Anyway, for some strange reason, that was enough incentive for the 3 of us to start telling each other ghost stories. Despite the fact that I may have been mildly spooked when the stories were done, we all said goodnight and went off to bed. Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night in need for a quick bathroom run. Half asleep, I stumbled into the bathroom only to see what I would describe as a giant cockroach the size of my palm scurrying along on the floor and was throughly frightened. I had visions of cockroaches covering our cabin as though we were stuck in a movie about the world’s end floating in my head.

After coming back to reality for a second, I thought it was best not to wake the lads and attempted to stuff my duvet everywhere that the cockroach could crawl and tried to go back to bed. Thankfully, before I knew it, the sun had risen once again and after careful inspection of the bathroom, there was no cockroach to be found. Not sure if I have my overactive imagination to thank for another sleepless night or if we had actually been visited by the world’s largest cockroach. Guess I’ll never know.

In a blink of an eye (otherwise known as a super long nap on the bus) I went from the flashy extravagance of Surfers Paradise to the little hippie town of Byron Bay. Both packed to the gills with tourists this time of year but each sporting a very different crowd. Regardless, I wasn’t overally enthused with all there was to do in Byron Bay aside from eating scoop after scoop of ice cream (In The Pink is my new second home!) so I opted to do the “leisurely walk” to Cape Byron Lighthouse to help burn off some of the calories I was so quickly packing on.

After breakfast, the English Rose and I sent off on our journey. There may have been a quick stop in town

Cape Byron Lighthouse

to get ourselves a little WiFi (strange the things people bond over…) before making our way to the path leading up to the lighthouse. We made our way from the streets to a boardwalk to a bush area and then to a parking lot. Yes, I said PARKING LOT! It took a little searching before we found the track again and were back on track to complete our walk.

After a little stroll by a beach, we were hitting stairs and uphill slopes like no tomorrow. Despite the fact that this uphill trek reminded me of heart attack hill, I was throughly enjoying myself. Photos were taken of this, that, and everything else. Stops to spot dolphins happened at every other bench we came across. We were also constantly veering off the track to the look outs for better pictures and possibly shake the Croc wearing stalker who had started tailing us half way through the walk.

In the end what was supposed to be a 2 hour walk ended up taking half a day but all I have to say about that was it was a perfect good way to waste an other beautiful day in Australia.